The present invention relates to the field of automation and, more particularly, to video pattern recognition for automating emergency service incident awareness and response.
In emergency situations, first responders (e.g., emergency service personnel) can have a huge impact in many scenarios, especially in life threatening situations. As such, emergency services make every effort to minimize response time and maximize life saving opportunities. Currently deployed technologies aid emergency services, but emergency services can often be delayed in dispatching personnel due to human limitations. Normally, emergency service personnel are manually dispatched by operators who respond as quickly as possible in critical situations but unfortunately can often take too long to dispatch emergency personnel. This delay can be caused by a number of factors including the time required for operators to be provided with information during an emergency. For example, when a victim of a crime calls an emergency service (e.g., police), operators often attempt to determine the nature of the crime, the victim's location, if the victim has sustained injuries, and other pertinent details.
In areas with surveillance, cameras can be an invaluable tool in providing useful information during an emergency situation. Surveillance equipment (e.g., cameras) used in this manner often communicate video stream from cameras to a surveillance center (e.g., video operations center). In surveillance centers, security personnel must manually review the video stream and make best-case decisions based on information gathered from the stream. When an emergency situation occurs and emergency services are required, security personnel must, in some cases, manually communicate the relevant information to a dispatch operator. These manual actions can be unyieldingly time-consuming and can potentially result in loss of life due to increasing the time in which emergency services can take to respond.
Further, in some events, victims of emergency situations cannot readily reach emergency services. For instance, a victim of a crime can enter a state of shock resulting in loss of communication skills. In these instances, rapid response of emergency personnel is of absolute paramount. Without an effective means to contact emergency services lives can be lost, property loss can occur, and a myriad of endangerments that continually escalate with the passage of time can unfold.